The Mets face various uncertainties within their rotation for next season with pitchers who could choose to depart, but one call from that group is theirs alone. 

Carlos Carrasco’s contract contains a team option worth $14 million for 2023 that the Mets have to decide on within five days of the World Series’ conclusion. Carrasco will receive a $3 million buyout if the Mets decline the option. 

With Jacob deGrom, Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker all potential free agents, a reunion with the 35-year-old Carrasco would add a level of stability to a rotation in which only Max Scherzer is guaranteed to return. But the Mets also have Tylor Megill and David Peterson as rotation depth that pitched significant innings this season and could be elevated to full-time starters, if needed. 

After missing most of last season with a torn right hamstring, Carrasco started 29 games for the Mets this year and went 15-7 with a 3.97 ERA with 152 strikeouts in as many innings pitched. His contract had a vesting option for next year that would have automatically kicked in at 170 innings (if Carrasco finished the season healthy). But his failure to reach that innings threshold — largely because of an August oblique strain that caused him to miss three starts — turned the option into one the Mets now hold. 

Given the cost for free-agent starting pitching, $14 million (actually $11 million when the buyout is factored) falls into the “reasonable” category for next season. The flip side is Carrasco’s age and the mileage on his arm. Though Carrasco missed only the three starts this season with the oblique strain, he also pitched through other ailments, earning him additional respect within the organization, but bringing pause as to whether his option should be picked up. Carrasco pitched four innings or fewer in each of his last three starts this season and was excluded from the Mets’ wild-card series roster against the Padres. 

Before this season, Carrasco hadn’t surpassed 100 innings since 2018 with Cleveland. The following year he battled cancer, before pandemic-shortened 2020 and the hamstring injury last year that kept him sidelined until late-July.

The Mets acquired Carrasco with Francisco Lindor before the 2021 season in a trade that sent Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez (along with prospects Josh Wolf and Isaiah Greene) to Cleveland. In 12 starts with the Mets last season, Carrasco went 1-5 with a 6.04 ERA. After the season, he underwent surgery to remove a bone fragment from his right elbow. 

Carrasco aside, the Mets are without certainty on deGrom, Bassitt and Walker. 

DeGrom has stated on multiple occasions his intent to opt out from his contract and become a free agent after the World Series. Bassitt’s contract contains a mutual option for next season worth $19 million that the right-hander is expected to decline in search of a multiyear deal on the open market. Walker’s contract has a player option for next season worth $6 million, but the right-hander — who hired Scott Boras as his agent in July — stands to receive significantly more on the open market. Walker will receive a $3 million buyout if he declines the option. Scherzer will be in the second season of a three-year contract worth $130 million he received last November.